The Miracle of Mercy Land: Blog Tour and Review

Kelly Blewett, a freelance publicist working with the WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group, invited LadyD Books to participate in the blog campaign for River Jordan's The Miracle of Mercy Land. The blog campaign runs from October 25-29th. Indeed, I said "Yes", so a big thank you goes to Kelly and WaterBrook Multnomah for providing the book for review.

Book Summary:
 

Mercy Land has made some unexpected choices for a young woman in the 1930s. The sheltered daughter of a traveling preacher, she chooses to leave her rural community to move to nearby Bay City on the warm, gulf-waters of southern Alabama. There she finds a job at the local paper and spends seven years making herself indispensable to old Doc Philips, the publisher, and editor. Then she gets a frantic call at dawn—it’s the biggest news story of her life, and she can’t print a word of it. 

 

Doc has come into possession of a curious book that maps the lives of everyone in Bay City—decisions they’ve made in the past, and how those choices affect the future. Mercy and Doc are consumed by the mystery locked between the pages—Doc because he hopes to right a very old wrong, and Mercy because she wants to fulfill the book’s strange purpose. But when a mysterious stranger shows up, Mercy begins to understand she may have to choose between love and loneliness . . . or good and evil . . . for the rest of her life. 

The Miracle of Mercy Land

The Author

River Jordan began her writing career as a playwright where her original works were produced, including Mama Jewels: Tales from Mullet Creek, Soul, Rhythm and Blues, and Virga. 

Ms. Jordan's first novel, The Gin Girl (Livingston Press, 2003), has garnered such high praise as "This author writes with hard-bitten confidence comparable to Ernest Hemingway. And yet, in the Southern tradition of William Faulkner, she can knit together sentences that can take your breath."

Kirkus Reviews described her second novel, The Messenger of Magnolia Street, as "a beautifully written atmospheric tale." It was applauded as "a tale of wonder" by Southern Living, who chose the novel as their Selects feature for March 2006, and described by other reviewers as " a riveting, magical mystery" and "a remarkable book." 

Her third novel, Saints In Limbo has been painted by some of the finest fiction voices of today as "a lyrical and relentlessly beautiful book," and "a wise, funny, joyful and deadly serious book, written with a poet's multilayered sense of metaphor and meter and a page-turning sense of urgency," and reported by Paste Magazine as "a southern gothic masterpiece."

Her fourth novel, The Miracle of Mercy Land, arrives on September 7, 2010. Her first non-fiction work, Praying for Strangers, An Adventure of the Human Spirit will be published by Penguin/Berkley on April 5, 2011.

Ms. Jordan teaches and speaks around the country on "The Power of Story", and produces and hosts the radio show Clearstory Radio from Nashville. When not traveling the back roads of America, River lives with her husband and their Great Pyrenees lap dog in Nashville, Tennessee.

My Thoughts

The story is set in a  sleepy Southern town in the 1930s. There we find one of the main characters, Mercy Land, a trustful newspaper reporter, who encounters a mysterious book that holds the past, secrets, and future of every person in Bay City. Mercy works along-side Doc, the owner of the local town newspaper, The Banner. He is an elderly guy, full of wisdom and experience and becomes Mercy's closest friend and mentor. 

Someone from Mercy's past,  John Quincy who is a bit mysterious yet ever so handsome and smooth in all his ways, comes to town and is also interested in this book. Mercy tries to uncover the book’s purpose but soon discovers that the contents within burden her with the responsibility of so many choices that could affect future lives forever, including hers.

I couldn't put this mesmerizing book down. I finished it in a few days and was so impressed with River Jordan's professional writing style. She is an excellent word-crafter. Her words come alive and make me feel such a part of this marvelous story, a spiritual thriller.

The Miracle of Mercy Land is a magical story of twists and turns, going deeper into hurting, broken lives and discovering the power of redemption in mercy and love. 5 stars! The book has elements of mystery, romance, and historical fiction. A win-win combination from this brilliant author. I look forward to reading more from River Jordan. 5 stars!

What if you had the power to amend the choices you made in the past? Would you do it even if it changed everything?

 The Miracle of Mercy Land
 

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: WaterBrook Press; Original edition (September 7, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307457052
• ISBN-13: 978-0307457059

 For more information and a look into a chapter of the book, visit her site.

http://www.riverjordan.us/books/miracle-of-mercy-land/

I LOVED this book!

-- LadyD

“You can’t get a cup of tea big enough or a book long enough to suit me.” — C. S. Lewis